The present invention relates to a shelf assembly and more particularly to a shelf assembly for use in connection with household refrigerator doors.
It is common in household refrigerators to have the access doors inner panel formed to provide shelves for storage of food containers and beverage bottles. At the front of the shelf there are rails or shelf front members that extend across the front of the shelf to prevent the food containers and beverage bottles from falling out of the shelves at the front of the inner panels. It is desirable that these shelf front members which extend from one side of the inner door to the other side of the inner door be firmly secured to the door so that they remain in place especially when the door is closed abruptly so that the inertia of the food containers and beverage bottles do not detach the shelf front member from the door and thereby fall off the shelf and perhaps even cause breakage of the bottles.
It is also desirable that the shelf front members and the end caps holding the members securely to the refrigerator door be easily removable by the user for purposes of cleaning. Therefore, in the case of the end caps holding the shelf front member, it is desirable that they hold the member firmly in place yet be easily removable from the refrigerator door. It is also desirable that endcaps be insertable with a straight unidirectional motion to obtain minimuim assembly time and therefore less manufacturing cost. By this invention these desirable characteristics are provided.